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Arizona Western Eliminates Football Program

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Arizona Western College, a two-year institution in Yuma, announced Wednesday that its football program would be eliminated after the 2018 season.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision for me and my team to make,” Arizona Western College president Daniel Corr said in a news release. “Any time you’re facing the closing of a program, you know you’re going to impact real individual people -- your students, your co-workers, your fans -- who are passionate about that program. We have talented student-athletes here. We have a dedicated coaching staff. We have a rich tradition and a legacy in football with fans and alums across the region and the country. At the end of the day, the challenges we faced to continue the program -- with the uncertain future of the league, the difficulty in putting together a schedule, the inability to fund increased travel -- were simply too much.”

The college is following in the footsteps of Maricopa Community College District and Pima County Community College, which cut their football programs earlier this year and created a crisis in the Western States Football League over whether the remaining institutions would be able to continue the conference. Only Eastern Arizona College and Snow College in Utah remain in the conference. Eastern Arizona is holding a public meeting today to decide the fate of its football program.